Dieter3

I'd imagine many of you saw this on eBay recently. I just wanted it for the maker's mark, it's otherwise unremarkable. Guessing that things were cobbled together, or perhaps the original recipient wanted to upgrade the lapel rosette from the bow that should have come with this piece. Weren't these 3-ray rosettes introduced in the 20's/late Taisho or very early Showa? This is one of our well-known "SU"-marked rosettes, but I believe the medal is closer to WWI time-frame. Any thoughts on this?

Why not? If a piece looks overall aged like the ribbon, case, etc., I will tend to leave them be. But if the piece is otherwise in really nice shape, I may choose to polish them to a more visually appealing state. I'm not big into tarnish. Not to mention, now I can put a nice coat of wax on it to prevent any future tarnishing. Some folks lke the toning and tarnishing, and I do when the tarnish is really even, I mean, REALLY even. But this splotchy tarnish? Na....

BEFORE POLISHING:

Here's a bit of a contrast - the lapel rosette that came with this one, and a post-war one:

New arrival, late 20's to early 30s, I'm guessing. Overall, the set was quite nice - the medal was tarnished up, but given that everything was in a good state for the age, I decided to hand-polish it.

One odd thing I find though is this stitching in the middle. I have no idea what it is for - perhaps the maker felt a need to do this to tighten up the ribbon, or it is some kind of repair, or maybe it just slipped out from underneath the band that should be hiding it? Whatever it is, it seem totally unnecessary. Note too the choice of a yellowish-orange thread instead of white! Newbie medal maker? Kinda cheesy!

And a slight variation in the shape of the interior of the case....different makers I suppose.

Here is the attachment mechanism from this new one and a photo of the attachment from one of the other ones above. This new one seems to have a nicer quality, better refined one in my opinion:

Here's a new one with some interesting (?), albeit minor differences.....

Somebody needs to explain that price to me. Something rare there in the papers and documents perhaps?

Yeah, doesn't quit work that way. Though I don't think acrylic is the worst material you could use for storage, I don't know how much off-gassing it undergoes. I know the whole idea is for visibility, but you could store this box in another archival box that is made to actually skim such gasses and absorb them. But lots of materials in general, especially woods (plywood, etc), and modern construction materials that undergo heavy chemical processing - one must be cautious! I always advise to turn to conservators on stuff like this.

My take on things from this thread: http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/42699-document-storage-and-preservation/ And here's why: Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure, 3rd Class - what you are looking at is the glass that the original was touhing for God knows how many years. Absolutely everything wrong was done with this document for displaying it. There was a significant amount of transfer of everything from the document to the glass - AMAZINGLY the document still looks fairly decent all considered.

Polystyrene is the plastic of choice for archival storage, or so I'm led to believe.

One must really appreciate the simplicity of the AK-pattern rifles.

It also lets you check your Facebook page and send tweets simultaneously.....

Another cool one!

Cool! Thanks for posting!

I just don't understand them. The backgrounds make no sense to me. Yeah, O.K., the one is Japanese-themed, and perhaps there is some relationship bewteen the background and medals, but it eludes me. I would just think that awards of this level (really, ANY level) would have much more elegant homes. These come off as tacky and cheap to me. And why is the Rising Sun being displayed reverse visible? I do kinda like those frames that are made to contain document of issue, medal, case, rosette - the works, you know? Show it ALL man!! That way maybe you won't lose the other pieces in the set. And for gooness sake, keep the dang thing OUT of the sun, heat, bright lights, etc. I get wanting to show pieces off, but I'm all for the museum approach that aims to conserve the piece - yeah, O.K., that's impractical by most counts, but.....

I guess I've gotta be the dissenting voice - those look horribly done! Sorry.

I wish!!

Agree, has to be later replacement. Wonder how much this affects value?

Final price - 257,000 yen - a little out of my price range! I figure there are simply some pieces I am not meant to have.

1,678,777 yen and 287 bids later - we have a winner! Oh MAMA....nice little bid shootout there!

Yeah, wish I could afford it!!